Eat your fruits and vegetables........

An August 11, 2005 AP article shocked me. There has been growing concern about the health of Americans these days and especially about rates of obesity among children. The new USDA food pyramid suggests our diet include 3 cups of fat-free or low-fat milk or cheese, 2 ½ cups vegetables, 2 cups fruit, 6 ounces of grains and 5 ½ ounces of meat or beans. It is hard not to look at those items without looking at what our government subsidizes: $7.3 billion for corn and feed grains, $3.5 billion for cotton, $1.6 billion for soybeans, $1.5 billion for wheat, $1.5 billion for tobacco, $686 million for dairy, $626 million for rice, and $271 million for peanuts. I am not shocked by the government saying one thing and doing another, I am shocked that we are just now starting to question this inconsistency.

I am NOT against farm subsidies. In fact, I am more concerned about farmers today than at any other time in the past. Last March our county celebrated Ag Day with meals and displays out at the County Fair Grounds. This focus on the farmers in our community is timely and needed. In this day and age, farmers are the neglected heroes of our land. I’ve heard farmers refer to themselves as gamblers. From year to year they gamble on the weather, the cost of their seeds, gasoline, chemicals, and the price of their commodities, never knowing for sure if they will make a profit or a loss. Many times they lose. And their loss is our loss. Farm subsidies are important to many small farmers.

Indiana grows corn and soybeans extremely well. There is interest these days in setting up a bio-fuel plant in Randolph County to turn those grains into ethanol. It has been difficult for me to think about food crops being turned into fuel when we live in a world where 24,000 people die daily from malnutrition or hunger. But I began to rethink my concerns after I read this article. I think it is more objectionable for good crops like corn and soybeans to be turned into high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated soybean oil to make cheap, nutrition-poor food for people here in the United States. The fact is, Americans eat little corn or soybeans in their natural state. One day public pressure will change our subsidies to reflect the food pyramid and Indiana farmers could loose out. That should be a concern for all of us here in Randolph County. As we look seriously at gasoline approaching the $3.00 mark, using our land to produce a good, clean alternative fuel source is well worth our support and our government’s subsidies. That could be a real “victory garden” in our world today.

Eggplant

From my garden: Eggplant
From the Compassion Garden: tomatoes, cucumbers, basil
Sunday Lunch: Ellen’s Oven Ribs, Ratatouille, Brown Rice, Corn on the cob, Fresh Green Bean and Red Potato Salad, tossed salad, and Whole Wheat Rolls.

My second attempt at trying eggplants in Indiana worked! The last weeks I’ve harvested several large eggplants and I am happy and proud! Not only are the plants themselves nice looking plants for a small garden like mine, but the purple fleshed large fruits make the plants look exotic.

I usually crave ratatouille this time of year and now can make it once a week with fresh eggplant, tomatoes, and zucchini readily available. I serve ratatouille with pasta or with brown rice with parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. It is also good as a side dish with chicken and a crusty bread.

Other favorite uses for eggplant: Moussaka (a Greek dish of sautéed eggplant slices layered with a tomato based meat sauce and topped with a custard-like cheese sauce), babaghanoush (a roasted eggplant dip), and Eggplant Parmesan (breaded eggplant with a tomato sauce and cheese).

Ratatouille

½ cup olive oil
1 large red onion
4 cloves garlic
1 large eggplant
3 med zucchini
1 green pepper
10 roma tomatoes
½ cup chopped fresh basil
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
Salt and Pepper

Sauté sliced onions in olive oil. Add green pepper and eggplant and sauté until vegetables begin to soften. Add zucchini, garlic, and ¼ cup basil and sauté for an additional 3 or 4 minutes. Then add tomatoes. Simmer on low for 30 minutes. Stir in the remaining fresh basil and parsley a minute before taking off the heat. Serve over pasta or rice. You can roast eggplant, green pepper and zucchini in the oven for 30-40 minutes before adding to the rest of the ingredients.

Dill Pickles

From Compassion Garden: Cucumbers, dill pickles, and bread and butter pickles.

I've had several people ask for the dill pickle recipe I use for the bushels of cucumbers that are coming from the Compassion Garden these days. So far I've made 2 gallons of dill pickles and 4 gallons of bread and butter pickles in addition to all the fresh cucumbers people have taken. It has been a great year for the cucumber harvest. Both the pickles I make for the compassion garden table are a refrigerator pickle and will keep for a month or longer.


Refrigerator Dill pickle chips

2 pounds cucumbers
3 Tablespoons canning salt or other course salt
2 cups distilled white vinegar
3 cups water
1 tablespoon dill seed or 2 heads of dill seed
4 garlic cloves
¼ teaspoon of crushed red pepper
2 bunches of fresh dill, coarsely chopped

Cut cucumbers into ½ inch rounds into a colander set into a bowl. Toss well with salt and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Rinse Cucumbers well and transfer to a large bowl or ½ gallon glass jar. Add chopped dill to cucumbers in bowl or jar and toss to distribute.

Bring water, vinegar, seed, garlic, and red pepper to a boil and simmer for 4 minutes. Let cool slightly for 10 minutes. Pour over cucumber slices and place in refrigerator for at least one week. Will keep a month.